Sergey Lavrov has told a conference of CSTO Foreign Ministers that the failure to solve the Syrian crisis would have negative consequences not only for security situation in the region, but for the whole system of international law.

The Russian Foreign Minister was speaking at the opening of the
session of Collective Security Treaty Organization – the
Russia-led bloc uniting six neighboring countries: Armenia,
Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Russia.

In 2014 the rotating presidency of the bloc will be taken by
Russia, and because of that Lavrov briefed his colleagues on
current priority issues in international relations.

“We are concerned with the situation in Syria and not only
because of possible negative consequences to the region as a
whole, but also because of the negative consequences to the whole
system of international law. You know about the necessity to
quickly solve the problem of starting the dialogue, and about the
chemical weapons issue. I think, today we can support the
international community’s efforts on Syria,” Sergey Lavrov
said in his opening speech.

On September 14 the Russian Foreign Minister together with the US
State Secretary John Kerry coordinated a plan to secure Syrian
chemical weapons by mid-2014, following a suggestion from Russian
President Vladimir Putin. However, the differences between Russia
and US still remain – Moscow insists that any discrepancies and
disputes are solved through consultation with the UN Security
Council, while the United States suggests that any suspected
violations are dealt with by military force.

In addition, the Russian minister again warned his colleagues
about possible aggravation of the military-political situation in
the Central Asian region in connection with the planned
withdrawal of coalition forces from Afghanistan.

Afghanistan has observer status with the CSTO and member
Tajikistan borders this country.

The participants of the session then went on to discuss the plan
of military cooperation between the CSTO nations up to 2020 as
well as deployment of peacekeeping forces from the bloc and
forming a collective security system.

The session continued with a summit of CSTO leaders hosted by
President Vladimir Putin. The summit participants also
concentrated on common efforts to strengthen the Afghani-Tajik
border, and talked about the situation in Syria,
Russian President’s aide Yuri Ushakov told the press as the
meeting started.

When the summit was over President Putin said that all CSTO
leaders expected a worsening situation with drug trafficking,
terrorism and political extremism after US-led coalition forces
leave Afghanistan in 2014. The Russian leader promised the allies
will work to prevent the emerging threats and would not be caught
unprepared.

Putin also said that the Syrian crisis brought similar challenges
to the Central Asian nations and other CSTO members as “bandit
formations that act in this country have not come from nowhere
and will not go to nowhere.” “The problem of terrorism
overflow from one country into another is very real and can
directly affect the interests of any of our nations,” the
Russian President said. He also pointed out that the terrorist
attack in Kenya can be seen as a typical example of such
developments, as there are signs that the Nairobi terrorists
arrived in Kenya from other countries.

Putin then urged the CSTO leaders to think about how to prevent
and cut short the international threats against their countries.